NCAA Officially Eliminates Spring Transfer Portal Window in College Football

The college football scene, which is frequently characterized by its greatest critics as chaotic and anarchic, has a little more order.

On Wednesday, September 17, the NCAA Division I Administrative Committee decided to do away with the spring transfer portal window.

The FBS and FCS oversight committees will examine changes to the suggested January window, which would run from January 2–11, even though a single transfer portal window has not yet been formally decided. A final decision is anticipated in October after discussions over the precise dates and duration of the window.

Recent years have seen rosters undergo major changes at a somewhat late point in the college football calendar, making the spring transfer window a source of concern for many coaches throughout the sport. Over 1,000 FBS players transferred in the spring of this year.

Coaches unanimously supported a single transfer window at the annual American Football Coaches Association convention in January.

Starting on January 2, the day following the College Football Playoff quarterfinals, players could submit their names on the portal and be contacted by interested schools under the current FCS and FBS proposals. Starting the day following their team’s last postseason game, players whose teams advance past that point would have five days to use the portal.

Graduate transfers will also have to wait until what is anticipated to be the single portal window in January after the Administrative Committee opted to eliminate the provision that let them to access the portal in the autumn. Graduate transfers were permitted to access the portal as early as October 1st of last year.

This is the most recent contraction of the college football players’ transfer window. The window was open for a total of 60 days during the 2022–2023 offseason, one year after the NCAA initially permitted players to transfer once without incurring the penalty of missing a season. That decreased to 30 days in 2024–2025 and 45 days in 2023–2024.